For a while I've been fiddling with electronics, designing my own pcb's and soldering a lot of thing together, which is lots of fun. I've become quite comfortable soldering small parts, like 1206 resistors (by hand) and SOT-23 packages (solder paste + hot air).
I now often come across parts that are basically supposed to be used in a professional way, by pick and place machines, for example, parts like TPS63001 (3×3 QFN package)
or the MAX17043G+U (TDFN-8) and was wondering if I should attempt to use them and what would be the best approach.
I know that using parts like those are best suited to be picked & placed in a automated way, but price wise that doesn't really seem to be a option for one off prototypes.
If I want to solder these parts manually, what kind of equipment should I be looking at? (Or should I not attempt using them at all? ) I currently only use a soldering station (a cheap baku) that also has a hot air gun, which is ok, but not perfect, so I was already thinking about buying a proper soldering station (maybe a weller).
Would hot air be a good way to go with these small parts, or should I look at hot-plate soldering or even a reflow oven?
Should I look into some device for magnification? maybe a electronic microscope?
And what about a solder paste dispenser? would it be more suitable than stencils for one-offs?
Any other tools that would be required for this work?
My main problem with soldering paste is currently that I don't have a proper way of putting the right amount on for these small parts. Usually I pot on too much which leads to shorts in the circuit.
Best Answer
There are two main techniques to hobbyist SMT soldering: hand soldering, and reflow. Hand soldering uses an iron, solder, soldering wick, and sometimes flux. Reflow often involves applying solder paste, which consists of little beads of solder suspended in flux, to the pads of the board, placing the components onto the pads, and then heating the assembly to melt the solder creating a joint.
This is taken from the following; https://www.wayneandlayne.com/smt/